Meet The People Adds Saltwater Collective to Its Growing Roster of Agencies

New York based agency group strengthens its digital core with this latest acquisition

Meet The People — the innovative new alternative to the big advertising holding company model — launched by Tim Ringel in 2021, today announced the addition of Portsmouth, NH based Saltwater Collective to their roster of agencies.

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Back row L-R Craig Ellis, President, Meet The People; Christopher Griffin, Co-founder, Saltwater Collective Front row L-R Mike Carella, Co-founder, Saltwater Collective; Tim Ringel, Global CEO, Meet The People; Joseph McConellogue, Associate Partner, Performance Digital, VSA Partners; Allison Potter, Principal/COO, Saltwater Collective. Photo credit: Mallory Parkington Photography

The full-service digital agency joins the Meet The People group of companies, VSA Partners, Public Label, Match Transact and Match Retail, adding significant digital capabilities to the expanding group. With the completion of the deal, Meet The People grows to 550 employees across North America.

“We’re excited to welcome Saltwater Collective to our group,” says Meet The People Founder and Global CEO, Tim Ringel. “We’ve been impressed by Saltwater’s team, client work and thinking since our very first meeting — especially in terms of their digital production and media capabilities. I’m excited to introduce Saltwater to our team across the Meet The People agencies and our incredible roster of clients.”

Saltwater Co-Founder, Christopher Griffin agrees, adding, “This is a better connection of like-minded and talented individuals than we could have imagined. Our team will gain access to diverse colleagues and grow from next-level challenges, flexing their creative and technical strengths on a larger scale. In return we’re excited to share Saltwater’s creative interdisciplinary processes with our new partners to enhance their clients’ digital experiences.”

Meet The People has been on a significant growth trajectory. In just under two years since their founding in 2021 and with strategic and financial support through Innovatus Capital Partners LLC, the New York based portfolio management firm, Meet The People, has already completed multiple acquisitions.

“We are pleased to welcome the Saltwater Collective to Meet The People given their experienced and creative management team and complimentary business in digital and traditional media that will continue to expand our portfolio of offerings for clients,” said Innovatus CEO and founding partner David Schiff.

With the Saltwater Collective acquisition completed, Meet The People moves further toward their goal of growing the agency group to over 1,500 people in the near future.

Says Ringel, “It’s truly gratifying to find that our positioning and vision are so inspiring to independent agencies across North America and Europe. And our goal to create the first people- and client-centric advertising group of scale is resonating well with agency founders, with talent across all advertising trades, and of course among our growing roster of clients.”

“Saltwater has been positioned to grow for some time,” says Saltwater Co-Founder, Mike Carella. “We’ve been looking for a group to join that would allow us to maximize our potential, expand our services to our clients and give our team more experience and greater opportunities, all while retaining the culture and identity we’ve created here.”

Under Meet The People’s innovative new organizational approach, all of the roster agencies work closely together as a community in a single ownership structure, while retaining independence as a core strength to establish their own identity and culture. By combining entrepreneurially minded firms into one fully integrated platform, Meet The People is able to bring specialized services to clients, while providing fully integrated agency-of-record solutions to these brands at the same time.

“With this model, we give our clients what they really want,” says Ringel. “Integrated thinking, better services, faster solutions, less friction and deep expertise, all in a collaborative and transparent manner. It’s definitely a winning solution for everyone.”

Saltwater Collective and their capabilities are immediately available to the Meet The People clients through VSA Partners, Public Label and Match Retail.

For more information, please visit MeetThePeople.com.

ABOUT MEET THE PEOPLE

Meet The People is an international group of unified but independent agencies bringing together key marketing services under one umbrella, allowing for fully integrated but deeply specialized solutions, from Creative and Design to Activation and Measurement. Backed by Innovatus Capital Partners, LLC, Meet The People is deeply committed to the idea that people are at the core of any organization and drive success, and that advertising works best when clients have access to expertise and deep talent.

ABOUT SALTWATER COLLECTIVE

Saltwater Collective is a marketing and advertising agency with comprehensive digital and traditional capabilities. Founded in 2007 and based in Portsmouth, NH, Saltwater has a history of earning long-term client relationships rooted in trust, respect, and measurable results. Saltwater’s work spans many disciplines including branding, media, pay-per-click advertising (PPC), creative design, copywriting, website design and development, search engine optimization (SEO), and video & animation.

Saltwater works with clients in a variety of verticals from banking and healthcare to education and retail, and many others. Saltwater was named to Inc. magazine’s list of 5,000 fastest growing U.S. companies three consecutive years from 2019-2021. To learn more about Saltwater Collective, visit www.saltwaterco.com or find the company on social media.

ABOUT INNOVATUS CAPITAL PARTNERS

Innovatus Capital Partners, LLC is an independent adviser and portfolio management firm with approximately $2B in assets under management. Innovatus adheres to an investment strategy that identifies disruptive and growth opportunities across multiple asset categories with a unifying theme of capital preservation, income generation, and upside optionality. Innovatus’ lower middle market strategy seeks to invest in companies with a strong market position, tangible and identifiable value, and excellent growth potential. The investment team works closely with business owners, management teams, and lenders to develop creative financial and operational solutions in both control and non-control situations. The team targets lower middle market and middle market companies with revenues of $25 – $250 million with typical deal sizes from $10 – $50 million.

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